SUNDAY TIMES
26TH January 2025
Exhibition rounds are not without their peril. For seven of Cheltenham’s eight flights of hurdles Constitution Hill and Nico Boinville were the epitome of supreme leaping harmony at the gallop. Then a moment of indecision and they were in a heart stop of disaster.
Coasting home clear of four vastly inferior opponents Constitution Hill met the obstacle on an uneven stride, did not have enough momentum for the leap that he was asked for, and crashed through the hurdle in a way that could have been a somersaulting catastrophe.
But it wasn’t. Constitution Hill has a balance to match his massive muscle, never looked like cartwheeling, and sauntered clear of toiling rivals much to the relief of his pilot. “He’s fantastic and I am delighted with him but angry with myself more than anything,” said De Boinville. “He’s found a leg and that was fine. He wouldn’t even blow a candle out afterwards.”
The drama was bookended with delight. Jump racing’s greatest stage was once again strutted by its finest current performer. Cleeve Hill looked down on a track bathed in a bright but chilly January sun and when De Boinville let Constitution Hill stride effortlessly clear on the back straight Cheltenham had a song in its heart.
The competition was meaningless except for handsome prizes for enterprising rivals. Brentford Hope collected £26k for second down and Joyeux Machin even took home £3k for finishing 5th and last. The pace was pedestrian, the winning time of 5 minutes 20.47 a full 10 seconds slower than the Gredley Family’s cracking little Triumph Hurdle hope East India Dock took to win the first. Yet no one at Cheltenham thought Constitution Hill’s outing was anything but worthwhile.
Certainly not Nicky Henderson and owner Michael Buckley for whom so much went wrong with the horse last season. “He’ll have a quiet week now and then we’ll start the engines up again,” said the trainer. “If we can get to the Champion Hurdle in the sort of form we are in today, we’ll go there with a big hope.”
Hope is what this “Festival Trials Day” is all about and while East India Dock was the most impressive of the dress rehearsals, there was enough in the way Jagwar won the Novice Chase at the start of the day and how Sixmilebridge took the Novice Hurdle at the close to suggest they would be worth support in March.
The Cotswold Chase is billed as a Gold Cup trial and L’Homme Presse’s connections confirmed they would lead the British challenge to Galopin Des Champs’ dominance. He is a smashing horse but his hard fought defeat of a spring-heeled Stage Star would not put too much fear in Irish hearts.
The same could be said of the admirable Gowel Road’s prospects in The Stayers Hurdle at the Festival despite his excellent win in the Cleeve Hurdle. His co-favourite Strong Leader once again disappointed in 4th for all the efforts of his rider Sean Bowen who had starred earlier with a quite extraordinary victory on the at times reluctant looking Moon D’Orange.
Bowen has a unique short legged style but great equine intuition. Feeling Moon D’Orange unable to go the pace, he stayed seemingly way off the proceedings but then galvanized his partner to challenge at the last and then survive a blunder with a piece of all but simian adhesion.
Yet forgive me if I close with a very personal memory. For after leading Constitution Hill away from the unsaddling enclosure his devoted groom Jaydon Lee suddenly found himself short-handed. So, as he had to hose down the champion which has brought him such joy and heart ache these last three seasons, it was your correspondent that held the bridle.
Don’t fool yourself that even an exhibition round does not demand its efforts. Constitution Hill’s flanks still beat with impressions of the power he exerts at the gallop. But those flanks are hard and honed now, his magnificent frame some 50 kilos lighter than the 600 kilo hefferlump than came in from the summer break.
And I was holding, or attempting to hold, what just might be the best hurdler that there has ever been. No, what you should never lose is the wonder.